You’ll find no ‘Asylum’ here ~ by Madeleine Roux #Review #Coyer

Much like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Asylum has a cover that’s meant to creep you out. What’s worse is that the photo there, as well as the many inside, are real.

Daniel Crawford is excited for his summer program that is taking place for five weeks at New Hampshire College. The regular dorms are closed, all being rehabbed for the upcoming school year. Instead, the student taking place in the college prep class are living in an old dormitory on the property, one that was formerly a mental institution. It closed in 1972, and the college purchased it then. After making friends with two other students and hearing of the building’s former use, the three decide to do a little exploring in an off-limits area of the former hospital. Then one of the hall monitors dies shortly after in a gruesome way that mimics a former resident. But the three are still eerily drawn to the place, each in their own way. The question is, why?

This is a creepy tale that really holds onto you. The descriptions, the photos, what happens – all expertly set out. Unfortunately, the ending feels adjusted in order to have a sequel. There are so many unexplained occurrences, coincidences/connections, and relationships I assumed would be (mostly) tied up in the end. Instead, they multiplied. Because of that, I wasn’t as enamored of the book at the end as I was prior to it.

More than anything, the photos are what got to me. They bother me, but not primarily because of what they are, but because those people didn’t have any say in having them taken. They seem so invasive, like they are animals in a zoo (which is very well what they were considered to be at the time). Now they are available for book covers and funny memes online, and a part of me finds that a little disrespectful. I am not saying that I have never and will never laugh at a picture of a woman with crazy hair, a wild look in her eye and a joke about coffee, but maybe I’ll not laugh as long.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux was published August 20, 2014 by HarperTeen. I purchased this book.